As 2014 recruiting winds down, new rules have sped up process for 2015 prospects

Dieter Kurtenbach, Sun Sentinel

The prospects in the class of 2014 are yet to sign their National Letters of Intent, but for many college coaches, their work with this year's seniors is already done.

That's because if a coach is just now showing up to the class of 2015 recruiting party in South Florida, they're months too late — and as the 2014 recruiting period winds down, the action around the class of 2015 has quickly ramped up to full-throttle levels.

It's hard to blame any coach for looking forward to the next batch of recruits. The class of 2014 was excellent in Broward County and below-average, quantity-wise, in Palm Beach — but across South Florida, the class of 2015 is stacked.

The excitement of college coaches for the class is such that many juniors feel they've had enough of the recruiting process and are already keen to commit to schools.

Recent history says that any commitment made before a senior season is highly susceptible to change, but that hasn't scared colleges away from accepting those commitments.

Thanks to NCAA rule changes, it's a new recruiting world, and early commitments and early enrollees are going to be more common going forward.

Under Al Golden, Miami has been ahead of the curve when it comes to early commitments and enrollees.

The Hurricanes already have nine class of 2014 players enrolled in classes at UM, and there is not a single Broward or Palm Beach county player that will be playing the hat game with Miami garb on Wednesday, welcome news for a coaching staff that sweated through National Signing Day 2013.

For both coaches and players, there's always been a fantastic benefit to enrolling early — most notably that freshmen can participate in Spring practices.

For coaches, early enrollment, if done correctly, also helps mitigate scholarship problems for teams that sign more than the NCAA's newly-mandated 25 players per recruiting class (read: all major Division-1 teams), because programs can back-date the early enrollees' scholarships.

As for early commitments, another recent NCAA rule change has jump-started the recruiting process. The NCAA passed a rule in October that will allow players to sign financial aid agreements with a school on Aug. 1, before their senior year, if they intend on enrolling early.

Signing a financial aid agreement binds schools to the player, but not players to the school — but colleges see it as a boost, because if a prospect signs a financial aid agreement with them, their coaching staff can have unlimited contact with that athlete.

And technically, that prospect doesn't have to graduate and enroll in college early — they only need to be capable of doing so.

Not every player will be offered a financial aid agreement come Aug. 1 — programs won't want to be financially liable to every player their recruiting — but for schools recruiting the best prospects, not having unlimited communication would be a significant disadvantage.

Top players like former University School running back Jordan Scarlett, who is now at St. Thomas Aquinas. He's has already committed to FAU — inarguably the highest-profile commitment in the Boca Raton program's history. As the top-ranked player in the Broward County class of 2014 rankings, if FAU can guarantee unlimited contact during the fall, they might be able to hold his commitment.

Miramar has specifically been a hotbed for early commitments. Cole has two teammates — wide receiver Khalil Lewis and defensive back Kendrell McFadden — that have committed to play for former Miramar coach Damon Cogdell at West Virginia.